Mount Prospect Historical Society

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HS Board

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History is for kids, too!

The Mount Prospect Historical Society is pleased to announce the return of its popular summer programs for 2022. 

Two sessions of the always popular Prairie Kids program will be held on July 21, 2022. Boys and girls, age seven and up, are invited to take part in these fun, step-back-in-time experiences. In session one, participants will try their hand at chores and games of yesteryear, make a yarn kid, sample homemade lemonade and plant vegetables. 

Life as a Prairie Kid I will be offered from 9:30 to 11:30 am. Life as a Prairie Kid II will also be held on Thursday, July 21, 2022, but in the afternoon from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. In session two, participants will continue their exploration of life in the late 19th century as a prairie kid. They’ll try their hand at old-fashioned chores and games, make a paper chain and a no bake snack, and learn sewing skills. 

The exciting Science of History program is back, too, and will be offered on Thursday, July 28, 2022 from 9:30 am to 11:30 am. This STEM-based interactive program has been delighting kids in past summers with themes such as catapults, waterwheels, log cabin building, rockets, and boats. This year children ages seven and up will explore “Wind” in honor of the 270th anniversary of Ben Franklin’s kite flying experiment. They will be making kites, pinwheels, windsocks and more.

To complement the science program this year, the Society is presenting “If You Lived in Colonial Times” on Thursday, July 28, 2022 from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. Learn book binding skills, make a tin can light, sample tea or hot chocolate, and play games of yesteryear. There will be dress up photo opportunities, too!  

 “At the Mount Prospect Historical Society, we love bringing history alive for all ages,” said Deb Rittle, Society President and Living History Chair. “We once again look forward to having Young Historians join us this summer for our exciting adventures through time!” 

 All sessions will be held on the Society campus (101 S. Maple, Street, Mount Prospect). Space is limited and registration is required. 

 The cost is $25 per person for each session or $20 if registering for more than one program.

 We’re right in the neighborhood. Come see what we have to offer! For more information about these programs or to register, visit https://www.mtphist.org/summer-programs-for-children-at-the-mphs/ or call 847-392-9006.

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Randhurst Commemorative T-Shirts On Sale Now!

Randhurst Shopping Center, a shopping landmark in Chicago’s northwestern suburbs, opened its doors to an excited public 60 years ago — on August 16, 1962 — and while the original structure no longer stands, Randhurst continues to serve the shopping public and fond memories of the original Randhurst experience remain.

“The mall may no longer be “all under one roof,” but memories of Randhurst remain sheltered in our hearts and memories,” stated Emily Dattilo, Director of the Mount Prospect Historical Society. “Everyone here has a memory of Randhurst, from playing on the sculptures, to ordering lunch at The Picnic, to shopping for Back to School clothes and supplies.”
 
The Mount Prospect Historical Society is commemorating this momentous anniversary with a new t-shirt that features several of the shopping center’s iconic features. Shirts come in red, blue or green.

“This is a pre-order sale and all orders must be placed by June 30, 2022” said Amanda Marcus, the Society’s Office Manager. “The shirt will sell for $28 for sizes S-XL and $30 for 2XL+.”

“We hope to ship the shirts by the end of July, but supply shortages may extend delivery into August. We thank you for your understanding,” Marcus continued.

Click here to purchase from our on-line store.

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Thank You to Our New Business Members

APC Financial Group
Busse Automotive
Formula Auto Repair
Friedrichs Funeral Home
Hearth & Home
Law Office of Mark J. Watychowicz
Mount Prospect Child Care Center
Picket Fence Realty (Thomas and Mary Zander)
Specialized Janitorial Service
Van Driel’s Medical Support Wear
Vista Linda Eye Care
Wilkin Insulation

Visit www.mtphist.org/membership/ to learn how your business can become a member too!

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From the Collection, Spring 2022

Throughout the early 1900s Lena Friedrichs kept in touch with friends and family by sending postcards. During the first fifteen years of the 1900s, postcards were an immensely popular way to send a quick note to loved ones, much like a text message with emojis today.

Postcards came in all sorts of designs for just about every occasion and sentiment that a sender could imagine. Lena’s collection demonstrates this wide variety. Some of the postcards send a holiday greeting or a congratulations, while others are photographs of places that family and friends had visited. Still others are much more whimsical! Now that Lena’s collection has been digitized, I wanted to share some favorites with you.

Thank you to all the volunteers who digitized these postcards!

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From the Desk of the Director, Spring 2022

Emily Dattilo, Director

The Historical Society volunteers have been busy this winter. In addition to guiding tours, volunteers have been hard at work adding newly donated artifacts to our database, digitizing files from our archive, and assisting me with an upgrade project for the Historical Society artifact collection.

Digitization efforts have sped up considerably thanks to a generous donation from one of our volunteers that allowed us to purchase a new scanner. This new equipment will allow us to share more of the Historical Society collection not just in exhibits and presentations, but also in the newsletter and through our website and social media accounts.

I am endlessly impressed by the talent and dedication of our volunteers, and we are so lucky to have each and every one of them sharing their time and skills with the Historical Society.

Staff and board members have also been busy planning programs and other events this year. In March we will hold a virtual Annual Meeting on our social media accounts. (The corresponding 2021 financial report is enclosed in this newsletter.) We will announce the exact date and time closer to the presentation, but afterwards all content will be available to view at any time. For my part of the Annual Meeting I will be presenting a new tour of the Dietrich Friedrichs House. I’m especially excited to share some of my recent discoveries about this beautiful historic house.

Probably the most intriguing discovery in this research process was finding a receipt in the keyhole of what is now the door to our office. Thanks to help from a board member and my coworker, Amanda Marcus, we were able to locate and contact the man named on the receipt. His stories about living at 101 S. Maple Street illuminated a part of the house’s history that was previously unknown. It was a rare example of finding answers — and history — in strange places!

Happy spring, readers!

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The Dietrich Friedrichs House: The Lost Years

by Emily Dattilo

Before 101 S. Maple Street was a museum, it was a home. Dietrich and Lena Friedrichs built the house at 101 S. Maple Street in 1906, and five years later their daughter Bessie was born. Collectively the Friedrichs family spent 60 years in this beautiful house.

101 S. Maple Street when the Historical Society purchased it in 1988. Photo by Walt Rutkowski

After Dietrich and Lena’s passing, Bessie decided to move into a home of her own with her husband, Charles Barnes. She sold 101 S. Maple to Richard and Jane Webb in 1966. Just like the Friedrichs family, Richard and Jane adapted the home to meet the needs of modern life and personal preferences.

One of the Webb family’s adaptations involved creating a main floor bathroom out of the pantry adjacent to the kitchen, as suggested in the 1966 real estate listing for the house. The Webbs also repainted the house yellow, as seen in the photo on the left.

In 1975 First Chicago Bank of Mount Prospect purchased 101 S. Maple Street, and the Webbs moved to another home in Mount Prospect. The bank was located across the street, on the corner of S. Maple Street and W. Busse Ave. in what is now the former Chase Bank building. Their original plan for the property was to tear down the home, garage, and carriage house in order to pave a parking lot. Neighbors and the Village of Mount Prospect, however, were strongly opposed to this plan because the space was zoned as a residential area. Instead, First Chicago Bank began renting out 101 S. Maple Street, most likely as a way to get a return on their investment.

One of those tenants was Richard, a young man whose lease lasted from 1982 to 1984. He shared the house with four other young people, all in their late teens and early twenties. During that time Richard occupied the room that is now the Historical Society office, and in July 2021 Historical Society staff found a receipt with his name on it stuffed into that door’s keyhole. One of the most entertaining memories from his time as a resident was when another resident’s cat had kittens. The kittens could be found roaming all over the house!

Richard moved out of town in 1984 and the rest of the tenants moved shortly afterwards. By 1987 the house was empty and once again available for purchase.

First Chicago Bank first approached the Village of Mount Prospect with an offer to sell the house, and the Village then turned to the Mount Prospect Historical Society. The Historical Society was interested in preserving this historic home, and they enthusiastically began an intense fundraising campaign to raise $94,000 in less than a year. First Chicago Bank donated the first $16,000 towards the purchase price. Individuals, businesses, and local organizations contributed the rest of the almost $80,000. Fundraising efforts included door-to-door campaigning, bake sales, breakfasts, and other special events. It was truly a community project!

However, it would take plenty of restoration to bring 101 S. Maple Street back to its former glory.

Crowds waiting to enter the new Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum on opening day, September 12, 1992

That meant continued fundraising. The Historical Society formed a Restoration Committee who guided the entire process with thorough research and input from two former residents, Bessie Friedrichs Barnes and Jane Webb. Volunteers spent countless hours researching furnishings and household items appropriate for an early 20th century home. Some of the most significant objects acquired for the museum were those that once belonged to the Friedrichs family. Bessie donated many of these, but others, like the dining room table and chairs and the hall tree in the entryway, were returned by their second owners.

The Mount Prospect Historical Society’s Dietrich Friedrichs House Museum officially opened with a dedication ceremony on September 12, 1992. Crowds of supporters gathered to witness the ribbon-cutting ceremony and celebrate all the hard work and dedication that made the day possible. 30 years later, we’re still sharing Mount Prospect’s history in this beautiful, historic home.

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River Trails Park District: A Pandemic Reflection

Written and Submitted by: Kate Erickson,
Communication and Marketing Manager
River Trails Park District

Quarantine. Lock-down. Social distancing. Six feet apart: Words and phrases we never imagined would become a part of our collective vocabulary. Concerns and questions immediately followed: How in the world could ‘6 ft apart’ work in Parks and Recreation? How could programming continue when our community was “locked down”? It was something that we would quickly find out.

On Friday, March 13th, Executive Director, Bret Fahnstrom, called an Emergency Leadership Meeting to discuss Governor Pritzker’s possibility to issue a Stay-At-Home-Order. At that point, there were thirty-two cases of COVID-19 across the state, primarily in Cook County. Three of the early cases were at NW Community Hospital in Arlington Heights; It felt like this mysterious virus was inching closer to home, and the team had to come up with a plan. Details and information seemed to be changing by the minute during those early days in March 2020. With closures imminent, the board and leadership team met to discuss the possibility of closures and lock-downs that appeared to be looming. Based on the information coming from health officials and from the state, the team made the difficult decision to furlough almost all part-time recreation, parks & maintenance staff which impacted approximately 80% of the entire District workforce.

By March 17th, Governor Pritzker issued a Stay at Home Order for the State of Illinois. Residents could only leave their homes to seek groceries, medicine, and medical care. As confusion around the virus enveloped the media, state, and country, the River Trails team realized our community needed us more than ever. We stayed at home, jumped on zoom calls, and got to work on redeveloping our programming and continue a place of community, despite not being able to be in our buildings. During those confusing days of March, the Parks and Maintenance team developed a facility and equipment cleaning program in hopes of a short-term service interruption. We created signs that we never could have imagined we would have put up around our parks: “For the safety of our community, please do not play on our playground equipment.”

The Recreation team quickly began developing programs that could be done virtually. During those early days, the Recreation team got creative by bringing the community together with chalking driveways and sharing nature scavenger hunts via social media. Marketing got to work on a list of resources on our website, called Happy Trails at Home. We provided local resources, tips, and ideas for keeping active and busy while at home.

Spring into Fun went live and evolved throughout the next year. The Recreation team served the River Trails community online; they reached out to partners and worked tirelessly to create virtual fitness, creative art, early childhood, and youth athletics. The impact of programs halting in March was seen immediately. Despite the loss of over $1 million in revenue, the fund balance of the district decreased by only $150,000 by the end of 2020. This was accomplished by purposefully reducing expenditures, and full-time staff really stepping up to serve in many roles beyond their typical responsibilities.

Difficult decisions still needed to be made as we headed into the summer of 2020: The Leadership team came to the difficult decision to keep Woodland Trails Pool closed during the summer of 2020. In all, this would impact approximately 140 summer jobs. River Trails’ popular all-day summer camps would also need to be scaled down considerably due to limitations dictated by the state in order to keep our children healthy.

That summer, the district continued to get creative and work together: our Backyard Camper Series allowed kids to have activities to do while at home while other kids joined us for Camp River Trails, our scaled-back Day Camp. And while The Trails Fitness Center remained closed, the community grabbed their mats and weights and joined our small but mighty fitness staff for group exercise classes outdoors. There was a collective feeling of excitement brewing regarding the programs we could bring back with caution and by following Phase Three of Restore Illinois. Micro Baseball, Parkour, and Expressions Dance came back while following six-feet apart guidelines and limiting the capacity of participants.

By August 2020, the staff developed Kid Squad Connect, an off-shoot of our Kid Squad Before and After School Program. Kid Squad Connect allowed children to do remote learning at our facilities with safety measures in place. It brought the district great pride to help working parents find a way to survive remote learning at a safe location for their children. Our Trail Blazer Preschool employees could return due to enrollment numbers comparable to pre-pandemic enrollment. Kids returned to preschool with masks and with as many activities as we could develop through learning outdoors.

Youth Soccer League and Basketball started back up during Fall and Winter of 2020/2021. We created a format that ensured 6 feet apart, stressed teamwork, focusing on passing and ball movement. Parents cheered from the sidelines while being socially distanced and wearing masks. Our Fall Brochure’s theme was ‘Rediscover’ – and it genuinely felt that this is what was happening: our community was rediscovering their favorite activities as the district slowly brougt back their favorite programs and events – safely. It would become a theme that followed the River Trails Park District throughout 2021.

We reconstructed our popular community events and added new ones to fit with the possibility of more shutdowns throughout 2020 and 2021. From our Halloween House Decorating Contest to Cuisin’ with Santa to additions such as Earth Day and Movies in the Park, we were excited to see our community out and enjoying River Trails events again. Our famous Youth Obstacle Course Race (OCR) was reimagined with new safety measures in place. New obstacles were built that ensured limited hand touching by participants. Transportable sinks were added throughout the race, and we limited the number of racers who could participate. OCR was a success, with over 150 participants racing through Woodland Trails. In 2021, OCR was back to its normal format and with record-breaking registration numbers.

As the vaccine became available and cases decreased throughout Cook County, our ability to join together as a community became more of the norm, instead of the exception. One example of this was when Woodland Trails Pool opened for business in June 2021. Opening day at the pool brought a line wrapped all around the building, as families eagerly awaited the welcomed sound of lifeguard whistles to mark that summer pool days were, indeed, back again. A resident emailed our team, “I could barely control the tears as kids were jumping and splashing in the pool again. Thank you for giving our children back their summer!”

Cases surged again with a new variant in December 2021 and COVID fatigue set in. As we headed into year three of living through a pandemic, we were reminded that we are resilient as a team and community.

We hung up signs and sent out messaging regarding the requirement to show vaccine status and we braced ourselves for push-back. Instead, we found that our community was open to working together to get through this latest setback in our post-COVID world.


We continue to reflect and are reminded of the good we have seen along the way. We celebrated the restoration of Burning Bush and Aspen Trails Parks. We are grateful for our Board and our staff who made it their priority to develop creative programs that foster connections and activity while keeping the health and wellness of the community at the forefront of their minds. Even during the most uncertain days, watching the community come out and explore our parks, sit in nature, bike our trails, and watch kids race through River Trails Park District’s open, green spaces, will be something we will never forget.